


Warning Signs

by Caraphernellic



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, F/M, MSR, Oneshot, Slight pining, these fools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:48:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25869196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caraphernellic/pseuds/Caraphernellic
Summary: Storm warning sirens begin in the distance, the sound eerie and invoking a shiver in Scully. She doesn’t know why the sound feels like an omen.
Relationships: Dana Scully/Fox Mulder, Scully/Mulder
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	Warning Signs

“It’s raining cats and dogs out here.” Mulder comments unnecessarily, the pelting rain quite evident on the window of their vehicle.

“Somehow, I expected you to say “It’s raining extraterrestrials and Sasquatch out here.” Scully grins sideways at him.

“Those aren’t even remotely related.” He sighs, feigning exasperation.

“Neither are cats and dogs,” she reminds him.

“Yeah but they- never mind.” Mulder shifts the car into drive and carefully heads onto the road. He fiddles with the radio, but quickly turns it off once it is clear that his full attention is required to navigate the rapidly flooding roads. It had poured all night and continued into this morning with no signs of stopping- several inches accumulating on the roads already, the drain pipes overflowing with nowhere else to deposit the water.

His partner squirmed nervously in the seat next to him, the weather conditions worse than she’d initially anticipated. She was secretly glad that Mulder was driving instead of her.

They drive in silence for several minutes as he focuses intently on driving through the rainstorm. Scully watches out of her window, continuous splashes of filthy water hitting the pane as their tires cut through where it fills the roadway. 

“Mulder-!” Wetness on her shoe alerts her to look down, where the water is now seeping into the car, the footwell becoming damp as it flows in.

He stops the car, but his reaction time between Scully’s cry and his recognition of what was happening was too slow. The water flows in steadily now and he utters a profanity, something he does surprisingly rarely. He must have inadvertently driven into a dip in the road where the water was too deep to go through.

Mulder tries the key in the ignition but the engine won’t turn over. “It must be flooded already. We’re going to have to ditch it.” He scrubs a hand over his face, mentally cursing the low-to-the-ground car that is standard issue from the bureau on their cases.

Scully tries the door but it won’t budge, the water on the other side acting as a barrier and pressing heartily against it. Mulder rolls down his window and twists his body as he shimmies out- she supposes he has the right idea, the car is already ruined. She does the same, plopping into the stagnant water with a splash. It comes halfway up her calves despite the small heels she currently dons, and she has a realization of just how dire the situation has become.

Storm warning sirens begin in the distance, the sound eerie and invoking a shiver in Scully. She doesn’t know why the sound feels like an omen.

“There!” Mulder points to a small hill; they need to get to higher ground. He grabs Scully’s hand and they trudge through the water together, moving slowly as it bogs them down. The hill is muddy and they slip and slide their way up, both falling more than once and catching themselves or each other with slick hands.

The relentless rain still pelts them, like tiny shards of glass or needle pinpricks. It’s cold, and becoming increasingly windy.

“Look.” Mulder points to their car, at the place they had just been, where the water is now strangely significantly higher than it had been minutes ago.

“The river.” Scully realizes- there was a river that ran behind their motel, it must have overflowed with the storm and now spilled its hearty contents onto the streets of the town. Their small sedan was now engulfed in water up to the bottom of the windows. 

She looks at her partner with worried eyes; this was going to be a difficult situation to get out of. What could they do, stay atop this hill until the storm ran its course? It could be hours, days even. They had no food or water, no dry place to go. He pulled her to him, their soaked clothing squishing together.

“We’ll find a way, we always do.”

Scully wants to believe him, but their predicament seems so hopeless that even she, normally calm, cool and collected, is out of ideas.

She sees a flash of yellow at the end of the hill and across the road. It looks to be a little girl, her yellow raincoat the only thing making her visible at all. She’s alone, trudging through the dangerous water. Mulder sees her at the same time, and a horrible feeling washes over Scully.

He’s going to go help the girl.

It’s too dangerous; although her heart breaks for the young girl calling for help, bile has risen in her throat and the idea of Mulder leaving her side paralyzes her. Surely the parents will come for the little girl any second. 

Strands of her soaked hair cling to Scully’s face, and her partner brushes a piece off her forehead before leaning down to press a firm kiss there. One of her small hands grips the lapel of his jacket tightly. “Mulder please!” She begs, but he shakes his head.

“I’ve got to do this, Scully!”

She watches him walk away from her, legs struggling to lift up and down with the weight of the water. She was scared, terrified in a way she hadn’t been in years while on a case. This wasn’t a creature or a man that she could protect them from with a gun, this was a force of nature that could potentially take him away from her.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

Scully watches helplessly as his form grows smaller and smaller; the girl is farther away than she had initially thought.

By the time his dark hair is a speck in the distance, she has made up her mind. Despite her fear of the storm and the dangers of the rising water, she begins following the trail he had just taken. She owes it to him- he has followed her into the danger zone more times than she can count, and she’ll be damned if she leaves him alone now. 

It is a slow and slippery trek down the hill, and the water level on the road reaches thigh-high to her at this point. On the other side in the grass, it is slightly lower but still a jarring level. 

Scully is now in sight of Mulder as well as the young girl, her yellow coat drawing her eye once again. He is holding onto her, their backs turned to Scully as her partner reaches for something. The object comes into view as she slowly walks closer- it looks to be a Raggedy Ann doll, caught in the branch of a felled tree. As she watches, Mulder sets the girl back down into the flooded ground and steps onto the tree, reaching, arm stretching far for the doll.

The tree dislodges, and to her horror, she watches the current sweep away the man she loves.

She is looking at the overflowing river, she realizes- she also realizes that he must have known that it was dangerous to use the tree as a foothold, or he wouldn’t have set the young girl down. But he’s Mulder, and he saw the chance to help someone and took it, no matter what cost to him.

“MULDER!” She screams, her voice cracking. She rushes forward as fast as she can, although it isn’t nearly quick enough with the water swirling around her legs and slowing her momentum. She watches helplessly as his dark hair floats further and further away from her, sees his hand come out of the water as if reaching for help.

Astonishingly the girl is clinging to the jagged stump of the tree, the leftover from when it cracked and fell into the river. Scully reaches her and manages to lift her onto a nearby playscape, the structure high enough that it is completely out of the water on the top platform. Scully is sure she will be safe long enough for her to find Mulder. She hopes with futility that the owner of the playscape will see the girl in their backyard and come help her, although the house is probably long evacuated.

Scully walks the length of the river, through the backyards of strangers, screaming Mulder’s name. She even screams Fox a few times, wondering if it will make him more inclined to yell back, if only to scold her.

Finally, after the longest few minutes of her life, she spots the black fabric of the long coat he had been wearing. Attached to it, of course, is Mulder. He bobs in the water, eyes closed but one hand loosely clinging to the remnants of a resident’s dock as the current threatens to rip him away once again.

She reaches her partner- her best friend, confidant, and everything in between- and drags him onto the small piece of slightly lopsided dock. Scully blames her ability to move his much larger frame solely on the adrenaline pumping through her veins. He isn’t breathing, she would guess he swallowed some water while his head bobbed in the water, or maybe when he was swept downstream. 

The dock provides her with a flat and mostly sturdy surface to attend to Mulder on, a few inches of water covering it but not enough to cover his supine form or prevent them from staying atop it. She prays hard as she tilts his head back, plugs his nose, and presses their lips together, breathing into his mouth. 

Once, twice, three times.

“C’mon Mulder, don’t give up on me.” Her other hand not currently plugging his nose squeezes his palm.

Before she can reach his mouth a fourth time, a small stream of water comes out and he sputters. She quickly turns him on his side, propping him up slightly due to the water level. More water comes out, and she claps his back, grimacing as she watches. 

“Scully, were you making a move on me?” He rasps out, giving her a lopsided but exhausted grin.

“Don’t ever do that to me again.” She scolds, pulling his head and shoulders into her lap and wrapping her arms around him. 

“I thought I lost you.” She says softly, leaning her cheek on top of his head.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” His self-deprecating jokes as always.

In the distance, she hears the storm sirens begin again.

It feels like a warning of more than the inclement weather, and Scully closes her eyes, letting the feel of Mulder’s hand in hers ground her for at least another minute.


End file.
